Assignment 1
For this assignment a little tricky in the beginning starting with finding the tonic of the key. In all music classes if you're in D major, a piano is played to tonicize they key. Using the tuning fork was a whole new experience for me which I found slightly challenging and was very tempted to start plucking out notes on the piano but was able to figure it out with repeatedly practicing. For my first video, with doing the same solfege exercises in different keys, I found that it was hard for me to switch from the different keys and having to figure out which pitches were which solfege in the new key, I really struggled with this at first. Looking at my two minute video of random patterns between do, re, mi, so, and la, I learned that personally I need to focus on my intonation moving from re to any other solfege in the scale. I was also a little bit shaky going from mi to la and should continue to work on my intonation for that interval as well.
Assignment 2
I really enjoyed this assignment and working with GarageBand, as I have had a little experience with the program but always love to learn more about it to help me in the future where I might need to use it. I had a basic understanding of how to use GarageBand so I did not have troubles or any frustration with trying to record the audio part of the assignment. I did however have some issues turning the audio into a video, but eventually figured it out. I thought that my recordings of the two small pieces of music (18 and 19 on the handout) were really good in terms of the notes and intonation, as I have been working on ‘re’ in the pentatonic scale as it is hard for me to move down to it and even sometimes up to it, but I was happy with how it sounded in this exercise. I also thought I did good at finding the starting ‘do’ by using the tuning fork which I am still trying to get used to using and hopefully with the continuous work I will be using the tuning fork for it will eventually get easier to locate the key I am in. One thing I think there is room for improvement on is the musicality in the singing. I think this is a challenging thing because in these exercises we are just singing pitches on do re mi so and la and something that always helps me to sing more musically is the words of a song and finding emotion in the piece to give it more musicality and it is hard to do with these exercises.
Assignment 3
I enjoyed doing this assignment. Working with the program GarageBand for a second time in this course is really helping me and I have gotten a better understanding of how to use it and have gotten quicker with it. I think I did a fairly good job at this cannon, and tried to make it sound more musical, as I have been having a difficult time with making a song sung on “do, re, mi, fa, so, and ti” musical as there are no real words, or meaning, making it difficult for me to make it musical, because I usually use emotion to bring a song musicality, but I guess that is the real challenge. I am still working on trying to keep the notes in tune, but I found with this one, it was just tricky recording the first track, but once I recorded the others, it was easier to have good intonation because I am hearing the chords, and not just the notes.
Assignment 4
For this assignment, we were to record ourselves figuring out one of the songs in the “Classical Canons book”. The purpose of this was to demonstrate how we approach learning a song using sofege and a tuning fork. In the video, I look at the key of the piece, and use the tuning fork to find an f, and then find the starting pitch of the song, and begin. I believe that I can find a note fairly easily using the tuning fork in an uncomplicated way which I am happy that I have improved with using that resource. I am still trying to make the songs that I am recording sound more musical and I feel like that will be my goal for this term.
Assignment 5
This exercise was very difficult in my opinion. I found that the first time singing it through took me quite a while to get it how I wanted it, and to keep the tempo steady. Adding in the parts just felt like it didn't work. I tried countless times to add in the different parts counting excessively to make sure I was coming in at the right time and trying to stay with the other parts, and I feel like I did that, but the parts did not seem to work well together. It would be interesting to hear a recording of it done perfectly to compare it to mine.
Assignment 6
I found this assignment a little bit easier than the last one. I did have to record it many many times and in the beginning had a little bit of trouble with the counting, but got it thankfully. Listening to it, I found that it is not something that I would like to listen to because I found there was a lot of dissonance and it did not always sound that good to my ear. It would be interesting to hear like a professional recording of it to see if this was just because I was off at a part or if that is exactly how it is supposed to sound. In terms of musicality, I thought I did better with this exercise and was able to make it a little bit more musical than past assignments, definitely having more than one part helps with the musicality and the intonation of the piece.
Assignment 7
This assignment was tricky at the beginning while trying to get the hang of the minor. I had some troubles in the end where it went 'si mi fa re mi la', just because it was a newer pattern for me, and It took many times singing it over for me to feel how it is supposed to feel and for me that was the most challenging part. I felt that my timing was very accurate, as well as my musicality is improving and is noticeably better throughout this classical cannon assignment. I have had trouble with intonation in past assignments as singing without accompaniment can sometimes have you going flat or sharp and out of key, but found as I was recording, the first part was slightly out of tune, but when I added the second part, I could hear where I was going off key in the original recording and was able to recognize that and go back to fix it and re-record to solidify the intonation.
Assignment 8
This cannon from the “Classical Canon” book I found was very difficult. I recorded it several times trying to get it perfect, and every time I felt like it did not sound quite right to my ear, I wish I could hear how it is supposed to sound like. Eventually this cannon was really frustrating me because of how my times I was going over it and trying to get the notes correct, it was just really difficult for me. I think moving forward, I need to focus on the ‘lá and ta’, because I think I am having trouble moving to and from those notes.
Assignment 9
This recording of "The Christ Lullaby" was actually really fun to record! Usually by the end of recording something after doing it so many times to make it sound good I am frustrated, but this one was nice and simple and just beautiful with the harmonies. The challenging part about this one was the fact that it was in Mixolydian mode, which was difficult because usually in music now we do not use any modes, but once I got the hang of it it seemed pretty fun to sing. I believe I brought musicality to the song and had good intonation throughout.
Assignment 10
For this recording, I found the harmonies sounded so beautiful. I especially loved the eighth note runs, although it took a few tries to get the correct notes in those runs, but it was definitely worth it. During the recording process I had the most difficulties with the third part, I believe this was because of the chromaticism within this ABC 3 part song, so working on the minor is definitely something I should be doing more regularly. I found my musicality was getting better as well as I had pretty good intonation throughout.
Assignment 11
This recording was actually very fun to do. I felt very good about my intonation, rhythm, and musicality. I found that harmonies complemented each other very nicely, which helped with the recording of all four parts. My favourite part of the recording was the alto part, the part that goes 'so fa me' in the second system, it makes the song even more beautiful with this nice harmony. I also thought the bass part made the song more interesting adding contrast between the higher and lower register.
Assignment 12
I found this recording slightly easier, but I feel like the assignments are not actually getting easier, I am just not struggling with them as much and have just been improving. I recorded the tenor first which was a little bit weird for me because I am not used to recording without the melody line there, but the tenor was very helpful when recording the alto line which was still very difficult. My favourite parts of the 'Lo How a Rose' was in the alto part when there were eighth notes that kind of worked in as passing notes in a way, it just made the harmonies even better.
Assignment 13
This recording of the Christmas Carol "What Child is This" was a nice song to record because of its familiar melody, but the other parts were quite difficult. I found the bass was very hard to record as it was jumping all over the place, and was hard to flip my voice. I tried my hardest to keep the low notes to add contrast to the other parts but definitely had difficulties here. My favourite part of this piece was the tenor part, I really enjoyed the harmonies it created with the other parts of the song, It also adds a nice low part that is not constantly flipping to another register.
Assignment 14
This recording of "Carol of the Bells" was really fun and exciting to record and really put me in the Christmas mood with this familiar song. I thought it was really beautiful right at the beginning with the solo line and then adding in a simple harmony and then adding in the tenor part making it even more beautiful. That was definitely my favourite part of this recording, just the simplicity of the beginning. I also really liked how it started simple and then moved into a more busy part of the piece and then the parts all coming back together with beautiful chords at the end and the continuing melody line. This was by far my favourite recording this semester so far.
Assignment 15
This recording of 'Away in a Manger' in solfege, was very fun and nice to record. I really enjoy recording familiar tunes in solfege, it is nice to know what the solfege is after years of singing it around this time of year. I loved the harmonies that the tenor brought to the piece. I found the bass part was nice but also added a blurriness to the harmony because of how low it was, although I tried to sing it in the octave it is written in as much as I could, I think singing it in a more comfortable octave for my range would have benefited the sound of my recording and the harmonies.
Assignment 16
In this Bach Cantata, the most challenging part for me was the lower part and getting it to match up with the higher part. I am a soprano so I usually catch on a lot quicker to any upper part and have a hard time adding in the lower part in the song. My favourite part of this song was in the second stanza when there appears to be a couple instances of call and response I really enjoyed the overlapping harmonies in this section. Moving forward I should work on the musicality which I think would be much better if I figured out where to breath so that phrases are not as choppy.
Assignment 17
I really enjoyed this song, it was nice to be able to use the words for this one because all the parts just worked so nicely with each other and I loved how all the words come together at the end. My favourite part of this song was the end where all the parts are singing the same words but the harmonies were very beautiful. My least favourite part was the bottom part because I found the constant repetitiveness of the word ‘yonder’ clashed with the main melody line and the words being said there. I really enjoyed being able to sing the words of the song because I feel it helps me to be more musical when recording.
Assignment 18
For this video recording, I attempted this many times it was like tapping your head and rubbing your belly. Individually, I could tap out each of these rhythms perfectly but putting them together was very challenging. I would love to do something more like this in class time to work on getting more coordinated with rhythms and counting and thinking at more rhythm happening at once. In a future rhythm exercise similar to this one I think I would slow it down for the video so that the two rhythms come through more, and it might help me a little, although I did try to slow this one down but was unable to do so but feel like being able to do would be very beneficial.
Assignment 19
For this exercise I really struggled through it. As well as making sure the rhythms were correct, I also had to stay on tune throughout each of the rhythms using the same note which I found gradually became flat as I was recording. For the rhythm part, I actually consulted my dad, who has been a drummer his whole life, for help with the 16th note triplets. In the future I feel like I would need to slow it down for more accuracy but was really struggling to make it slower, this final recording was the slow version believe it or not it was much faster and chaotic before so I was happy with the tempo I was able to slow it down to but I wish I started slower originally.
Assignment 20
For this recording, I did not really find that where we decided the harmonies should change in class really worked. This made it very difficult to figure out the rhythms to put everything together. I think the amount of slurs in this small excerpt were the reason that the harmonies did not match up and really did not work out. Also I was extremely sick while recording this so that was not helpful in figuring this all out. Looking forward to the next exercise but really didn't see how this one could work out well.
Assignment 21
This weeks recording assignment was a little bit difficult because of the extended tonicization close to the end of the piece. I found that I had very good intonation throughout the recording, as well as had proper rhythms. I did slow it down a little bit to keep it more controlled, but if I were keep working on this more I would eventually hope to speed it up to make it less choppy and more musical. I also found this piece a little easier because of my familiarity with the piece of music.
Assignment 22
In this recording, I had a lot of struggles. Firstly, I had a hard time seeing some of the notes and what their values were, and secondly the harmonies sounded weird to me at some points in this piece which made it hard for me to sing musically and just in general difficult to enjoy this particular piece. I loved the harmonies in the first three bars of the piece it was a really pretty and gentle sounding opening. Some of the harmonies going forward did not seem like they were in the right spots but maybe it was to add dissonance to the piece. When changing to the new key, I found these harmonies sounded pretty okay together but still not quite right to me. Changing back to the home key, I really enjoyed these harmonies with the eighth notes in the top voice.
Assignment 23
In this recording, I really enjoyed it. I loved singing this song because I used to sing it all the time in my church choir and always loved singing it and all the other verses, we are singing, we are marching, we are praying, we are dancing in the light of God. The most enjoyable part of this piece for me in the middle part, I always love the colour of the alto line, as well as love the moving quarter notes while the top part is holding “siyahumbaaaaaa”. This would be a really great piece to teach to kids because of how repetitive, and how simple and beautiful the harmonies are, and how easy it is to catch on. I will definitely be holding on to this if I find myself in a teaching situation in the future.
Assignment 24
For this assignment, I chose to sing “Someone Like You” by Adele. If I were to do this exercise again, I do not think that I would pick this song again. The broken chords progressions, although repetitive, were very difficult. The melody was very simple though, moving a lot between so mi and do. I chose to do broken chord progressions to add effect to the end chorus where the chords are solid to show a softer effect. I loved the chorus at the end, this was my favourite part to record and I think they best part of the song. As a possible future educator, this would be an awesome project for kids in small groups to put these skills to a favourite song to help them engage in the activity.
Assignment 25
For this clapping music song was really enjoyable for me to record. I really like a challenge like this. In the recording I looped the first part that repeats twenty six time, and I think there was a slight delay because of that in a couple sections but I really thought that looping this part would be best to be able to keep a consistent tempo. The second part took a few try to get it how I wanted it but I am happy with how it turned out, Unfortunately, I do think it sounds a little bit weird with the clapping on the recording doesn't sound like a clap or anything like the video that we watched in class. But it was a challenging assignment and I always like working on rhythms.